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" The postcolonial psyche in the prose fiction of Samuel Beckett 1932-1950 "
Dowling, Christopher Brendan
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Latin Dissertation
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| Record Number
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1101535
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TLets697541
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| Main Entry
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Dowling, Christopher Brendan
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| Title & Author
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The postcolonial psyche in the prose fiction of Samuel Beckett 1932-1950\ Dowling, Christopher Brendan
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| College
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Ulster University
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| Date
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2016
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| student score
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2016
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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| Abstract
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Going against the grain of the formalist annulment of history's impact upon a writer'spsyche, this dissertation employs postcolonial strategies in an analysis of Beckett'stangential response to the psychological-sociological impact of twentieth-century eventsthat witnessed both the nominal end of colonialism in Ireland and the dissolution ofEuropean imperialism abroad. Despite Beckett's adoption of an elliptical moderniststyle and the subjective focus and introspective nature of his characterisation ofBelacqua, Murphy, Watt, Molloy and Mahood, the socio-historical approach thatunderpins this reconstruction of a socially engaged Beckett, re-evaluates thesignificance of cultural nuances and extra-literary referents in the author's pre-war'Irish' fiction and his more European-orientated post-war prose fiction. Operatingwithin a postcolonial framework, I will explore the extent to which the socio-culturalennui and misanthropy of Belacqua, Murphy and Watt is traceable to both the coloniallegacy and the post-independence mood of disillusionment that enveloped the new state.Beckett's 'Irish' fiction' - More Pricks than Kicks, Murphy and Watt - contains thequasi-allegorical communique that the atrophying socio-cultural conformity thatstymied the cultural, spiritual and artistic development of its citizens was engendered bythe Irish State's postcolonial drive to normalise political and social relationships afterthe uncertainties and bitterness engendered by Civil War rivalries and the psychosocialimpact of the cultural suppression which accompanied British colonialism. ReferencingWatt, Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnamable, I will show how Beckett relentlesslyinterrogates the pitiless rationalisations underlying much of right-wing Europeanpolitics in the course of the twentieth-century's third decade from the subalternperspective of those experiencing postcolonial and post-war psychosocial alienation. Bythe same token, I will also examine how Beckett's resistance took the form of aconscious dehegemonising and a social-ethical resistance to the suppressionsengendered by authoritarian rule - whether nationalist, colonialist or totalitarian inderivation. Exploring the extent to which the Beckettian protagonist resists ideologicalinterpellation, I will show how Beckett's novels and short stories trace the psychicdilemma of his characters when confronted by the overarching and institutionalisedideologies of British colonialism, Irish nationalism, European imperialism and inter-wartotalitarianism. My postcolonial reading of Molloy and The Unnamable will focus onthe socio-ethical implications of the oppositional identity binaries which inform thesenovels' dyadic structure. I will also explore the impact of the psychosocialconsequences of war upon Europe's metropolitan citizens. In particular, J will considerthe socio-cultural tension generated by the conflict between old and new world orders,the reverberations of which can be heard - however faintly - within the Beckettian text.
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Ulster University
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